Secret Keeper
by boshrocks
Summary: Edwin is the family's secret keeper. But when the biggest secret threatens to be unveiled, how will they cope with it? DASEY. Edwin's POV.
1. Prologue

I am Edwin

I am Edwin. I am the Secret Keeper.

My family and friends have always trusted me to keep things secret. Nothing changed when dad married Nora. And it doesn't stop at secrets. I must have a great big sign on me saying 'Tell me all your problems' or something.

Marti tells me her silly little kid secrets regularly. Stepsister Lizzie confides titbits and gossip to me. Dad tells me secrets I don't really want to know and could easily live without. Even Derek and Casey enlisted my help in keeping their romance secret.

Oh yes. Derek hooked up with Casey before dad married Nora. Their relationship is special and I don't know how they could hide it so well. Fighting is all a scam, dating hundreds of girls is Derek's way of keeping everyone off the scent. Casey knows he loves her more than anything in the world, so she doesn't mind his dates. At the beginning she would sneak off after Derek and his dates and spy on them, just to make sure he wasn't getting too into the girls. Then he had a good talk with her and after that she trusted him.

I didn't mind it, when I first found out, nor do I now. I saw the looks exchanged between them even at the dinner table. I'm very surprised the rest of the family didn't see them. Actually they probably did, but they must have thought it was just some prank or payback. I was supposed to subtly let them know by a discreet nudge or kick whenever they got too obvious. Because it's secret and because they're so very much in love, it was hard for them to keep it hidden.

That's why they told me. So I could help them and be lookout. Every fortnight we meet up and come up with new excuses and things to 'fight' about so no one get's suspicious. Even their best friends don't know. And only I see how much Casey hates lying to Emily and Lizzie. Derek doesn't much like lying to Sam either.

And what, you may ask, is the point of revealing all this now? The keeping of this particular secret may be harder to hide now. This is for two very good reasons.

One; Derek, at eighteen, has recently proposed to Casey, and she has accepted. They know they have to keep that hidden as well…at least until they both reach twenty. Then they'll get married.

And two; Casey's pregnancy will start showing soon…so we'll either have to find a way to hide that with clever maternity clothes or find a way to tell people about it.

Pregnancy I think they could handle…just. But early engagement? That might be a bit harder for them to swallow.

Mind you…I'm not sure how they'll handle the whole step-cest issue.


	2. Beginings

Let me start from the beginning

Let me start from the beginning. When it all started. Let me supply the facts.

The relationship started before the wedding. Derek threw a party. Casey went. Neither realised who the other was or that they would soon be family. The party, like every one Derek throws, got rather out of hand. Things happened. Nothing too bad, Casey and Derek just had a bit too much beer. She and Derek made out. Apparently he abandoned all of his friends at the party because of her.

A few days later he called her, but she was swamped with last minute wedding preparations, so she told him where she was and he came to see her. He helped her with the arrangements and they talked; discovered their connection. They're more like each other than everyone realised, and different enough to have the right spice that is needed in a keener and a slacker's relationship.

That was three years ago. Now there isn't a better couple around. It's almost as though they're married already. They sneak into each others rooms to sleep in the same bed together.

Speaking of marriage; they have to wait until they're both twenty to get the engagement ring our great grandmother, who died when Derek was about three, left him in her will. He was allowed to get it once he reached twenty years old. He gave Casey a ring which didn't cost the earth, and which she wears on a very long chain that tucks under her bra cleavage and hangs loose in her top so it won't slip out accidentally.

But with Casey's impending pregnancy belly about to show the ring might have to come out because people will see it anyway when her big belly makes her clothes stretch and tighten over her bump.

It looks like everything will come out at the same time. And soon.

What a disaster.

I've promised to take some of the heat for it. How could I? Well, Derek is my brother…and he had me in a headlock at the time.

Knowing this family…that means I will have to take most of the rap. Dad will blame me for setting them up and for keeping it secret for them for three years. True I only knew for two and a quarter, but still.

I have to console Casey. She's worrying about telling them. Apparently Derek isn't sufficient comfort. And worrying is about as good for the baby as it is for its parents. Casey reckons she and Derek will be disowned when the rest of the family finds out.

I don't think so, personally. Dad and Nora might not like it, but they wouldn't go that far.

We're working on how to tell them. Derek thinks we should just tell them outright, but that's too brief and he only suggested it because he has no subtlety. I suggested going to them separately; Derek goes to dad and Casey to Nora. Casey is deluding herself, saying that we don't have to tell them until the baby pops out; she thinks we can hide the pregnancy in bulky jumpers etc. Unfortunately she normally wears well fitting clothes so I think Nora would notice if she suddenly started drowning in jumpers.

Somehow I think we'll go with my plan.

I also hope no one else in this family finds my journal. I'd never hear the end of it if they found out I kept this journal.


	3. Love

We have to tell them

We have to tell them. We have to tell them now.

Casey is showing very clearly. She must be four months into it, rather than three. This could prove problematic since we don't quite know when she'll have it.

But even dad has noticed she's put on quite a bit of weight. Besides, Derek will kill me for saying it, but Casey's jugs have gotten huge. Marti has a tendency to poke them to make sure they're real.

We have just had a meeting in my attic room over how to tell them. I can't believe I'm writing this, but we went with the gentle version of Derek's outright approach.

More disasters on the way.

I think we went with that one because Casey couldn't tell her mom on her own. She would be too nervous, and that would probably make her barf. She's been dating Derek for too long as the way he acts when he's nervous is exactly the way she acts when she's nervous now.…Either that or it's a side effect of the pregnancy.

Casey's been extra stressed because of the pregnancy. These days we have to leap in to stop her revealing anything when she's riled and really shouting at someone. Personally I think we should just let her let something slip. It would help as an introduction to what we have to tell them.

And I am being roped into it. Of course. When they stand before dad, Nora, Lizzie and Marti I will have to be standing next to them to explain myself… and probably tell the family the news since Derek and Casey won't be able to do it themselves.

Sometimes Derek can be such a coward. Actually he's a coward most of the time.

I wish we didn't have to tell them.

I blame Casey for being pregnant. As awesome as it would be to be an uncle and godfather as Derek promised, if she wasn't pregnant we wouldn't have to tell them until after they'd left for uni.

Actually I blame Derek for making her pregnant. Stupid urges. He can't keep his hands off her. I hope I'm not like that ever.

That's probably not true.

He's in love with her. Totally and completely. And not that she's pregnant he dotes on her. This can be a good thing and a very bad thing. You see, he's been letting her use his chair, because it's more comfortable, and the family is starting to question it.

It is sweet though. She is his life, his princess, just his.

And she is his heart body and soul. To her, he is god. Personally I think she's clinically insane but that doesn't mean I don't understand it. It's true love, plain and simple. Only I see the amount of love in her eyes whenever she looks at him. I feel quite privileged that only I get to see it.

But for now we have to find the best way to break the news to the family before Derek and Casey start their own family.


End file.
